Builders' Forum Archives

Re: Sailing the Mill Cree

Posted by Ivan Roulson on Dec 10, 2007

Actually, we're in the South-west of England. We paddled from Bristol to Oxford along the Kennet and Avon canal to Reading and then up the Thames to Oxford. We had hoped to sail part of the way, but the canal's about 12 feet wide in most places. We tried it once, but it's very difficult to keep from hitting things with the boom about 5 feet out to the side!

We have a single piece mast (an aluminium tube) sold here by fyne boat kits.

Having the mast on deck was nothing... we had the portage trolley there for quite a distance, too, as getting past the lock gates involved a lot of lifting. We also had an awful lot of kit on board as we were camping most nights. (Note.. there aren't many places to "legally" camp near the canal, particularly when it gets a bit urban).

We had to put the mast on deck sticking out (canal jousting, anyone?) as the bridges are too low for mast-up paddling. At one point, we had to duck down into the floor of the boat to get under a footbridge because we didn't have a key!